


Knowing is Half the Battle

by TinyButFierce



Category: Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Doctor Strange, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-08-30 18:43:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8544853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyButFierce/pseuds/TinyButFierce
Summary: Canon-Divergence. What if Kaecilius and his zealots had attacked when The Ancient One was in the hospital? And how can Stephen and Christine repair what was broken?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first Doctor Strange fic, hope you like it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, all rights go to Marvel

His hand shook as he picked up the scalpel. Although he once would have backed down and starting screaming at everyone over the loss of his hands then and there, his new persona came through. As calmly as he could, he handed the scalpel to Nick; the only other one in the room who, grudgingly, Strange admitted had the potential to be able to save the Ancient One. 

He stepped back and looked at her lying on the hospital bed surrounded by those he once called colleagues. Even though she dabbled with the dark dimension, she was still his mentor and he couldn’t lose her, not like this, in the place that he once could have saved her. 

Christine looked up at him, with sympathy in her eyes much alike the looks that she gave him after his accident and before he pushed her out of his life. The heart rate monitor beeped rapidly as the doctors administered treatment to the Ancient One. Strange looked up at the machine and saw a faint flicker, almost like a notification to him. The Ancient One had gone into her astral projection.  
Before he could follow her a crash sounded behind him. He turned as fast as he could as the Cloak of Levitation suddenly fastened itself around him, starling the doctors now staring at him wide eyed.  
Kaecilius stood in the doorway followed by two of his zealots; he sauntered in the room with his terrible eyes glancing over everything, smirking at the Ancient Ones still form. “Well, well, and so we meet again, I won’t be so easily thwarted now that your master's, how shall we put this, out of commission.” 

Strange’s eyes narrowed and his lips pursed as he took up a fighting stance in front of the doctors and the Ancient One’s body who had no access to the door. “I don’t know, I did manage to capture you before, and even though you do have a very classic ‘I’m evil and here’s why’ speech, it didn’t manage to sway me and believe me when I say that I won’t go down without a fight, and I bet that I’ll survive because honestly, I’m prettier.” 

Strange gave a little smirk at Kaecilius whose face had morphed into one of anger, “you want a fight then? Are you sure? You didn’t seem to do very well; it was you who trapped you and your little group in the mirror dimension which led to her, unfortunate for you, state of being. Oh and now look, bystanders, Oooo wont this be fun.”

Kaecilius drew his weapons from his back and took a fighting stance, a smirk upon his face as his zealots copied his stance behind him. Strange looked at the three standing ready before him, and his mind frantically tried to think of a way to lower the possible collateral damage that was soon to ensue, “hey, Kaecilius, three against one? I don’t think that’s very fair.” 

Kaecilius smirked, “I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference but to spare your dignity and to show you the extent of my mercy, I will destroy you myself.” He gestured behind him for his zealots to exit the room. They did so, successfully blocking the possible pathway to freedom from the room. Kaecilius smirked at Strange, “shall we begin?” 

Strange put his hands in front of him and made the motion to summon his glowing orange shields, they materialized with less trouble than before, the front one not shutting off as had happened in his previous encounter with the zealots of Dormammu. 

The doctors behind him gasped, the sheer sight of their previous colleague using something that they would never have believed even caused one of them to faint, the rest backing up against the wall, only Christine who had previously witnessed Strange’s magic stayed by the Ancient One in an attempt to keep her heart beating. 

Stephen and Kaecilius lunged at one another, Kaecilius ferociously attacking Strange’s shields, orange sparks flying across the room as they battled one another. A nurse screamed. Kaecilius, catching Strange off guard sliced his blade through the air with deadly precision only to be stopped abruptly by the Cloak of Levitation flipping upward to block the blow. 

Christine looked on with horror at the man she once knew, the man who was deliberately attacking another person, a man who once would have stood by his oath of being a doctor, a man whose apparent mentor was lying unresponsive on a hospital bed after falling out of the sky. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The two men dueled with flashes of light and too many close calls, it may have been her eyes deceiving her but it seemed as if Stephens cloak was protecting him at times, hell it might have been, it was turning out to be one of those days. 

The men interlocked together, Strange using his shields to brace against the combined might of Kaecilius’s weapons, the cloak flapping behind him as if to create an already present aura of intensity. Suddenly everyone froze. They all heard it, the rapid increase of a heart monitor. Kaecilius and Strange both looked over in awe at the Ancient One whose eyes had opened upon the scene enfolding before her.

Without speaking she raised a hand and with a twitch of her finger shot Kaecilius out of the room and into a portal that had been created, his zealots following quickly after, Stephen barely missing the blow only because the Cloak had pulled him back to avoid it. 

The Ancient One looked up at Strange the intensity in her eyes silencing everyone around. “He is gone for now, but he will be back… Do you wish to know what I see in your future?” Stephen walked towards her slowly, “no.” She inclined her head towards him as sarcastically as one can when lying on a hospital bed. Stephen laughed under his breath “reading my mind again?” Her eyes crinkled in good humor, “you have so many possibilities for your future, but do not dwell on possibilities, dwell on what you can do, in the present. I am dying Strange; I will not be able to assist the world any longer.”  
Stephen shook his head, “no, we need you; you’re the only one with the power to defeat Dormammu.” She smiled and looked into his eyes, her hand raised to touch his face. “I don’t think that’s true, you know what to do. New York has fallen, Hong Kong will be next, the dark dimension cannot rule, for the world will divulge into chaos. Do not let this happen Strange. I spent too much time for this planet to have it fall now.”

Her hand fell from Stephens face as the light dimmed out of her eyes. The heart monitor shrilled its last tone as the room fell silent; everyone staring at what would be Strange’s reaction. He reached forward and closed her eyes, then stood up straight, the Cloak of Levitation falling around him. 

He turned his gaze to Christine, the only one who had the willpower and bravery enough to interact with their possibly volatile, magic wielding, old colleague and friend. He stared into her eyes, an emotion that she had never seen in his face was revealed to her then, and she realized that the person in front of her was not the man that she had once known. 

He nodded once to her, an obvious gesture of thanks. His gaze landed across the room, flickering over the rest of the bystanders, all of whom were stock still as if they were deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. “None, of this leaves this room.” He glanced around one last time at the frozen medical staff, and gazed at Christine for what seemed like an eternity. “I have a planet to save.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two weeks later. An email is written and plans are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is continuing two weeks after where we left off. Hope you like it!
> 
> Again, I own nothing, rights go to Marvel.

Two Weeks Later…

Stephen walked along the streets of New York with civilian clothing on, trying to clear his mind of all that had enveloped it. After the almost destruction of Hong Kong and his rise to the rank of master of the New York Sanctum he hadn’t gotten out much. The death of the Ancient One still lay heavy on his shoulders as the world’s sorcerer population mourned. Reconstruction had begun in Kamar’taj and he was told to go and take care of things in New York.  
Take care of things didn’t even encompass the amount of work that involved that statement. Not only did he have to fix the whole Sanctum and multiple portals leading to various worldly locations but he also had to fix his personal life. 

Christine had seen him fight a man and the look in her eyes as he walked away had been, confusing. It was a mixture of the pity that he had seen from her before and confliction, confliction over what? Well, that’s just stating the obvious. He appeared in front of her twice in one day. The first time wearing foreign garbs, a necklace with an eye on it, and bleeding from a stab wound in his chest, and then he went and walked through a portal created in a closet. The next time she saw him, he fought creepy looking people with magic, his mentor died and he then walked off dramatically with his cloak flowing behind him. The Cloak does have a flare for the dramatic. 

Stephen sighed. He left the Cloak back at the Sanctum much to its displeasure. It would probably throw a fit later when he got back. But he figured that it would be a lot less conspicuous to walk around without a cape than with one. Even though this is New York we’re talking about. 

The pedestrians around him went about their day as if nothing had happened; nothing had happened for them, time is relative. Two businessmen talked about stocks, a woman shoved through the crowd on her way to something important only to her, a line stretched out of a Starbucks, a family walked past with a child eating an ice cream cone. 

The child tripped on a corner of the sidewalk. The ice cream slowly fell as time seemed to bend around them. The child’s face morphing into one of sadness as the chocolate slipped towards the ground. It hit the pavement and time regained its pattern. The child started to cry. 

Stephen stopped. Something inside of him broke and he reached his hand out. The child looked up into his eyes and the tears mixing with the young blue orbs grabbed his soul and hung on more than the darkness ever could. He waved his hand in the air and created the ice cream as it had been previously on top of the child’s cone. The child smiled. 

Someone in the crowd screamed. Stephen cursed himself silently. Of course someone would notice, oh look, there’s a guy doing magic or something in the middle of the street. He stood up and hurried along, ducking into the next alley he came to and creating a portal to get him out of there. 

He appeared in the Sanctum, startling Wong who had designated himself the person to look after Stephen to make sure that he wouldn’t get into trouble; he was also one of the only people who could deal with Stephen’s attitude so that worked out as well. 

Wong glared at him across the room and then turned back to the repairs he had been working on. The Cloak flew through the doorway and settled onto Stephens’s shoulders in a sort of death grip hug that only a sentient cloak can master. 

Stephen stalked back to his room and shut the door.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
She saw it on the news that night. Someone had managed to capture it on their phone, a man using magic in the middle of a busy street to fix an ice cream cone that had fallen on the ground. She recognized him. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she knew it was him; the way he held himself was too recognizable. 

Christine turned away from the TV. It really hits someone when the one person that they’ve been trying to block from their thoughts appears in front of them wearing medieval-like robes and bleeding from a stab wound in the chest. And then, said person appearing over their own bleeding body telling her what to do to heal him. She shook her head. No, he can’t have changed that much, he’s probably gotten even worse, being in the cult that he denies being in. Sure looks like a cult. Christine couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different about him though, the way that he looked at the woman in the robes seemed, almost compassionate. 

The television continued to play in the background, reports of the Avengers, happenings across the world, speculation on the destruction of various properties in London and New York, the usual. Her mind couldn’t get off of the image of Stephen fighting with seemingly magical powers; the man who once scoffed at her when she expressed admiration for the superhumans now seemed to have skill sets along those lines himself. 

Christine turned off the TV and poured herself a glass of wine, pulling out her computer to write an email that she knew had to be written for the sake of her mental state.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
His iPad glowed with a notification at 8:00. Startled, he looked up from the book he was reading to see an unread email from Christine. As fast as he could he clicked into the email and read what was written.

Stephen, 

I don’t know if you can see the news from where you cult is based but you’re trending on it. The mysterious ice cream savior, I never thought that I would be able to say that about you. Don’t freak out, they only have a video of your back. I don’t think I need to explain how I knew it was you. I need answers Stephen and I know you’re in New York. I have a day off tomorrow; meet me for brunch at the restaurant where I gave you your watch.

You have explanations, I need answers.

-Dr. Christine Palmer

Stephen looked up away from the screen and stared at the window, the metal branching and weaving together to connect to a circle of shining bronze. He closed the screen and sat back in his chair, putting his face in his hands and groaning. The Cloak drifted over to him and seemed to look at him cautiously. Stephen turned to the Cloak, “what am I going to do? She wants to meet.” 

The Cloak drifted closer and wrapped itself around him, the weight of it comforting Stephen and he brushed his hand through his hair. He stood up, the chair scraping against the floor. Walking over to the door he yelled for Wong. The man showed up after the echoing sounds of Beyoncé through the halls stopped. Wong glanced up at him and growled, “Yes?” Stephen looked at him, the Cloak shifting in encouragement, “I hope you don’t have any plans for me tomorrow, I won’t be in.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so they meet for brunch. An unexpected event occurs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Towards the end of this chapter I reference the events that occurred in the after the credits scene. Poor Jonathon Pangborn.
> 
> I own nothing, rights go to Marvel.

Stephen approached the restaurant with a certain hesitant elation. Christine had breached the idea of meeting first, which was a good sign, but the only reason she wanted to see him (according to her email) was in order to have him explain. She deserved that though, acceptance without an explanation can only go so far. 

It appeared as if there was a steady crowd eating inside, so he walked up the steps and opened the door. A waiter brought him to a table in back and there she was. Christine looked up from the menu and gave an uncertain smile. The waiter ushered Stephen into a chair and left to grab drinks. 

Christine set the menu down and clasped her hands in front of her. “So how’s the cult going?” Stephen sighed, “one, how are you today Christine? And Two, it’s not a cult.” Christine laughed and unclasped her hands, “okay fine, whatever you say. But we’re not here to banter or to ask how I’m doing, the whole point of this is for me to understand what happened to you and to judge whether to accept it or run screaming away because you’ve finally gone mad.” 

Stephen gave a small grunt of notification under his breath and leaned back into the chair. “We’ll, where exactly do you want me to start? There’s a lot that has happened.” Christine mimicked his posture and crossed her arms. “First, where did you go? Second, what did they do to you? Third, how are you using, well, magic? Fourth, who was the person who you brought into the hospital? And fifth but not last, I’ll have follow-up questions, nice facial hair.” 

Stephen snorted, “Well, that last one isn’t really a question but thank you. I went to Kamar’taj in Kathmandu, which was where they taught me how to harness powers from the multiple dimensions, I know it sounds strange (aha puns) and that you don’t really believe me judging by the expression on your face, but neither did I at first.” 

The waiter chose that exact moment to come to the table with their drinks and got their orders. For the rest of the meal Stephen explained what had happened over the course of his training and the attack on their dimension by Dormammu, when explaining his repeated death in the infinite time loop that he had created, Christine’s face morphed into one of shock and pity, hearing that one’s friend had died, not once, but hundreds of times, isn’t a good feeling. Especially added on top of the revelation that he’s also using magic, something that everyone had said wasn’t real. 

At the end of the story, Christine looked down at the watch that she had given him. “Do you know why I asked you to come to the restaurant where I gave you that watch?” Stephen shook his head. Christine continued, “I asked you here because this was the place in which I saw you eyes light up with something indescribable and it only reinforced the idea that you weren’t the exterior that you put up when at the hospital. It made me glad to be your friend and I asked you here to see if that thing that made your eyes light up is still there.” 

Stephen looked at her and tilted his head, “is it?” Christine smiled and put her hands on top of Stephens, “The whole time you spoke, your eyes were lit up with the same emotion. We’ve had our bad times and we’ve had our good times but now that I understand what you’ve gone through,” she smiled, “I think we can make this work.” 

Stephen smiled wider than he thought was possible and looked Christine in the eyes. “There are no words, to express how happy I am to here that. Christine, I thought about you every day that I was away and I was so worried that after what happened at the hospital you wouldn’t accept me, but I guess I am one of those classic sob stories that you like so much.” Christine grinned, “You’re not a sob story Stephen, you’re a comeback story.” 

At that they both separated their hands and Christine reached for the bill, at Stephens slight protest she raised an eyebrow, “I got this, don’t worry, I don’t need any chivalry.” At that they left the bill on the table and got up to walk out. 

As they exited the restaurant a student whom Stephen recognized as one of the ones sent by Kamar’taj to help with repairs approached them. He motioned for Christine to stop as the student came closer; she turned around and looked confusedly at the approaching student who came up to them - dressed in the type of robes that she had seen Stephen in the last time she had seen him - and paused. “Master, er no, Doctor Strange, Master Wong sent me to find you as fast as I could, there’s been an emergency.” 

Stephen started at that, “what happened?” The student glanced at Christine, almost as if to question her presence in the conversation. Stephen noticed the look and waved his hand, “she’s with me don’t worry.” The student nodded in uneasy confirmation and continued, “Jonathon Pangborn came to the Sanctum totally paralyzed, all of his abilities taken, he told us who did it, and, it wasn’t good.”  
Stephen raised both of his eyebrows, “who did it?” The students gulped, “I’d rather not say here. Master Wong told me to retrieve you as fast as I could, I would recommend asking him for the details.” Christine interrupted right as Stephen was about to respond, “Wait, backtracking here, how did you know where we were?” Stephen turned to look at her, “Wong made me tell him where I was going after I tried to walk out of the room dramatically.” 

Christine raised an eyebrow, “ah.” Stephen continued, “Christine, Wong wouldn’t ask me to come to the Sanctum unless it was an extreme emergency, I’m sorry but,” Christine stopped him, “No way, I know what’s going on now and you’re not going to walk out on me like that, I’m coming with you no matter what.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A battle is fought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thanks so much for everyone's support of this story! Here's the last chapter, hope you like it!
> 
> I own nothing, rights go to Marvel.

Christine stepped through the portal with Stephen into a massive room with a stair case taking up half of the space and evident damage scars across the interior. Stephen turned to look at her after gesturing her in the direction of the staircase, “welcome to the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, my residence and the place that I have to protect with my life.” Christine raised her eyebrows, “with your life? That’s a tad bit excessive.”

They walked through rows of display shelves, most of them shattered on the floor, but some evidently in the middle of repairs. Eventually they found their way into a hallway and stumbled across Wong coming out of a room. Stephen stopped and Wong crossed his arms, “Strange, who is she and what is she doing here.” Christine piped up, “well first, her name is Christine and I made Stephen bring me here, also, I heard about the paralysis case and I’m an ER doctor.” Wong sighed, “Great, another doctor, well, you’re here now so you might as well be useful. The man’s name is Jonathan Pangborn and he was a very prominent sorcerer which was what gave him his mobility back after being completely paralyzed. This morning when we sent someone to go check up on him as we normally do every once in a while, they found him completely paralyzed again and yelling about Mordo and how we’re all in danger.” 

Stephen leaned against the wall and his face fell into an expression of defeat, “no, it couldn’t be Mordo, he can’t, and he would never succumb to the darkness.” Wong stared at Stephen with the most sympathetic look he had ever given, “Strange, I know Mordo taught you much but he had his own demons to deal with that the Ancient One helped put to slumber. He had great trust and loyalty to her but when you revealed her true way of collecting power something snapped.” Stephen spoke with a crack in his voice as he looked up towards Wong, “and then I went and reversed time, a thing that he thought never should happen, it’s my entire fault.” 

Christine spoke up, “Stephen Strange snap out of it, it is not your fault; any sane person could see that you did what you did for the benefit of everyone, you saved the planet, you saved all of us, Mordo just doesn’t see that and it’s entirely on him for turning to the dark side, don’t you dare place the blame on yourself.” Wong looked at Christine, “I like her.” Christine grinned at Wong and Stephen straightened up from his position at the wall, “okay, let’s figure out how to stop him then.” 

Over the next few hours they concluded that Mordo, knowing Stephen would be in the Sanctum would come for him next. The plan was this, they would evacuate everyone from the Sanctum, Wong included so that it would just be Stephen and Christine (who fought valiantly to stay). Stephen would be the only sorcerer in the Sanctum, luring Mordo in and - having the benefit of prior knowledge of what he would do - would attempt to defeat him. Christine being the backup in a case of emergency as Mordo couldn’t take any powers from her as she had none. After an argument in which they concluded that Mordo would be less likely to attack if Stephen was wearing the Cloak, he deemed it stay with Christine just in case, the Cloak surprisingly, not protesting very much over this change in wearer, possibly because the Cloak knew that Christine was close with Stephen.

And so the time came, everyone had been evacuated from the Sanctum and Christine had placed herself behind a door in the entrance room, Stephen standing right outside facing the door. At around 10:30 the door banged open and Mordo walked through confidently. “Strange, how pleasant it is to see you,” Stephen took up a fighting stance and they started circling around each other like hawks waiting for someone to make the first move. Mordo laughed, “I see that you know what I’m here for, and I knew that you would send someone to check up on Pangborn that day, I wanted you to know what I was coming for.” Stephen snarled under his breath at him, “Well, you won’t be taking it any time soon.” 

Mordo laughed again, “Why Stephen, I think you forgot something in this whole plan of yours, I taught you how to fight.” At this Mordo lunged into the air and using the same move that he had at Kamar’taj, knocked Stephen to ground off guard, his head connecting loudly with the floor, Stephen falling in the direction so that the door where Christine was would be to Mordo’s back. Mordo placed his foot on Stephens’s chest, restricting his movement as he feebly tried to get up, “Oh shhh, Stephen don’t struggle, I need to tell you something first. You took everything from me, you ruined the Ancient One by revealing her methods of power, you defied our own laws and entered the dark dimension, and how do we know he didn’t turn you in there. Oh but I’m going to enjoy this very much, you see, life is all about loss, both of us can relate to that. You lost your hands, you lost your job, you lost your money, you lost yourself, you lost ‘Christine,’ and now you’re going to lose the only other thing that gives your life some meaning. Oh but I can tell in your face how much ‘Christine’ hurt, was it your doing, oh yes I bet it was, oh but here’s when you ask, ‘Mordo how did you know about Christine,’ well, I read it on that watch that you tried to protect with your own life, I was the one who rescued you.”

While he was saying this however, Christine and the Cloak had floated silently out of the door towards Mordo, at her name she paused and clutched the heavy metal bar in her hand a little tighter, getting ready to swing, she had to leave it with the last word, “Hey Mordo, he never lost me.” As Mordo turned around, his eyes widened as the bar connected with his head, knocking him out cold. 

Stephen tried to stand up and the Cloak immediately floated to his side, Christine walking over a second later after checking that Mordo was indeed unconscious. As she bent down, their gazes connected, Stephen’s eyes being impaired by a minor concussion, Christine smiled, “you’ll never lose me.”


End file.
